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78-464: Carpe Jugulum ( / ˈ k ɑːr p i ˈ dʒ ʌ ɡ j ʊ l ə m / ; Latatian for "go for the throat", cf. Carpe diem ) is a comic fantasy novel by English writer Terry Pratchett , the twenty-third in the Discworld series. It was first published in 1998. In Carpe Jugulum , Terry Pratchett pastiches the traditions of vampire literature, playing with the mythic archetypes and featuring

156-497: A combination that has them feeling quite upset (it not being their usual craving for blood ). All is revealed when Granny (who has "helped" Mightily Oats to Überwald by being carried by him), tells them that — far from turning her into a Vampire — they have, instead, been 'Weatherwaxed'; she had magically "Borrowed" her own blood, which they drank, allowing her past their mental defences. The Magpyrs find themselves unable to harm Magrat's daughter, or do anything else that Granny herself

234-675: A distraction to escape, leaving Granny, Agnes and Brother Oats with the Vampires. Granny is unable to get through the Count's mental defences, and the Magpyrs feed on her, with the intention of transforming her into a vampire. Nanny attempts to organise resistance against the Magpyrs, rallying her extended family to form a mob, and promising the Nac Mac Feegle (a race of six-inch-high, blue-skinned militant fairy folk evicted from Überwald by

312-479: A half day's journey by horse, less if the horse is Boris from Going Postal ) and to which it is connected by two clacks towers. It encompasses a large boulder emerging out of the Sto Plains like 'a geological pimple', left there by the retreating Ice Giants. The castle is built into this rock. Its most recent king before the present monarch was King Olerve, who was shot with a crossbow by an assassin hired by

390-424: A house in (or even walking into) a region where this has happened is extremely dangerous, as it is mentioned that an individual may not remain the same species, shape or level of sanity as they were when they entered. Medium levels cause odd effects, such as coins landing on their edges and turning into caterpillars. Areas with larger than normal quantities of background magic tend to display unusual qualities, even for

468-532: A human, the easiest way is to convince the cat, on a deep level, that he is a human. In fact, the main reason the Auditors of Reality dislike sentient beings in the Discworld universe is that the Auditors are the personifications of the real-world laws of physics, but the Discworld physics' power of belief and the humans' ignorance constantly remake the world, making their work fruitless. More significantly, it

546-519: A loose collection of independent city-states, ruled over by a close-knit (and probably interrelated) ruling class. The Sto Plains could be thought of as being similar to Germany prior to the unification of the states into the German Empire , with no overall authority. According to Mort the area was to be united in the coming decades. As reality was given a retcon in the book, the Duke who united

624-512: A million thaums, beyond that level, Discworld reality starts to break down. Parodying the introduction of the metric system, later Discworld novels refer to the introduction of the newer unit, the Prime, to avoid arguments over the standard sizing of pigeons. It is defined as the magical energy required to move one pound of lead one foot, referencing the Joule . The thaum also appears to be a particle,

702-484: A poultice for his facial boil. Latatian The Disc is the setting for all forty-one Discworld novels; it was influenced by world religions which feature human worlds resting on turtles, as a setting to reflect situations on Earth, in a humorous way. The Discworld is peopled mostly by the three main races of; Men, Dwarves and Trolls. As the novels progress, other lesser known races are included, such as; dragons, elves, goblins and pixies. Pratchett first explored

780-652: A reference to Frances Buss ). It is explained in Soul Music that few of the Discworld's higher-class schools (such as the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild School) will admit female students (although the Assassins have since changed this policy), so Miss Butts founded the College "on the astonishing principle that, since gels had nothing much to do until someone married them, they might as well occupy

858-463: A school of magic, Braseneck College (a parody of Brasenose College, Oxford ), which is apparently in competition for prestige with the larger, older Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork. In fact, the novel Raising Steam makes clear that this rivalry extends to the city level, as Pseudopolis refuses to accept an Ankh-Morpork-constructed trainline. As of Unseen Academicals , the aristocracy of

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936-524: A swamp dragon-breeding dowager duchess in Guards! Guards! . In Sourcery , Quirm was destroyed by wizards in a magic war, but presumably restored by Coin when he put everything back as it had been before the war. Susan Sto Helit , Lady Sybil Ramkin and Miss Perspicacia Tick were educated at the Quirm College for Young Ladies. The school's headmistress and founder is Miss Eulalie Butts (possibly

1014-600: A tongue-in-cheek reversal of 'vampyre' subculture with young vampires who wear bright clothes, drink wine, and stay up until noon. Count Magpyr and family, vampires from Überwald , are invited to the naming of Magrat and King Verence 's daughter, to be conducted by the Omnian priest, the Quite Reverend Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om 'Mightily' Oats, a recent graduate from theological college. During

1092-399: Is almost always highly trained in martial arts. Discworld witches often employ narrative in their magic, but consider it ethically tricky since it interferes with free will . Discworld wizards avoid doing so because narrative that severely strains credibility requires outright sources of magic to feed on, sometimes indiscriminately. Knowledge of stories, their use and how to change them forms

1170-542: Is also belief that gives Discworld's gods their powers. Discworld gods start off as tiny spirits, and gain power as they gain believers; this is explored most thoroughly in Small Gods . A similar effect has led to the personalisation and "reification" in the Discworld universe of mythological beings symbolising abstract concepts, such as Death , the Hogfather and other anthropomorphic personifications. In Hogfather ,

1248-468: Is also the location of Dunmanifestin, the home of many of the Disc's gods and the Discworld analogue of real-world Greek mythology 's Mount Olympus . The area surrounding Cori Celesti is known as The Hub, a land of high, icebound mountains that serves as an analogue to the real-world Himalayas , polar regions (since, although the Disc has no poles as such, it is as far as possible from the Disc's edge and thus

1326-699: Is an almost landlocked body of water approximately halfway between the Hub and the Rim, opening at the turnwise side into the Rim Ocean. The Circle Sea is analogous to the Mediterranean , in that it is bordered both by countries on the Sto Plains (Europe) and continent of Klatch (Middle East, North Africa). Its principal trading ports are Ankh-Morpork and Al Khali and Ephebe on the Rimwards side. The countries around

1404-404: Is believed strongly enough, or by enough people, it may become true. Jokes such as treacle mines and drop bears are real on the Disc. In reality lemmings do not actually rush en masse off cliffs; on the Disc, they do, because that is what people believe. These concepts of Discworld physics are also exploited in both wizard and witch magic. For example, when a character wishes to turn a cat into

1482-495: Is described as having been "a sportsman"). Surprisingly (for the Magpyr family, at least), the old-fashioned ways to defeat vampires that they thought themselves protected against start to work again (with conditioning against religious symbols resulting in the recognition of such in any random pattern). They don't understand what the problem is, although they start to have bizarre cravings for "hot, sweet strong tea and biscuits ",

1560-531: Is described as roughly 10,000 miles (16,000 km) wide, giving it a surface area two-fifths that of the Earth , which would make it roughly the size of the Pacific Ocean . In addition to its flatness, Pratchett gives it another principal geographic feature; Cori Celesti, a 10-mile-high (16 km) mountain that lies at its exact centre and is the point of origin for its standing magical field. Cori Celesti

1638-468: Is hypothesised that new turtles would be born to carry a new pattern of worlds. Attempts by telepaths to learn more about Great A'Tuin's intents have not met with much success, mainly because they did not realise that its brain functions are on such a slow timescale. All they have been able to discern is that the Great A'Tuin is looking forward to something. The other theory, described as being popular among

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1716-411: Is known as narrativium, the elemental substance of Story . Nothing on the Disc can exist without a Story first existing to mould its destiny and determine its form. This is, perhaps, a take on the fact that nothing can ever happen on the Disc unless it is written in a story by Terry Pratchett. On the Disc, if a story or legend is told often enough and believed by enough people, it becomes true. This

1794-609: Is known as the law of narrative causality. For example, characters in Guards! Guards! describe the marauding (noble) dragon as an "impossible" creature, yet it is able to fly and breathe fire because that is what dragons are expected to do . Similarly, a witch gone bad may meet a bad end after building a house of gingerbread . If a miller has a third son, he will invariably leave him only his cat . A hero will always win when outnumbered, since million-to-one chances are dramatic enough to "crop up nine times out of ten", but always lose when faced with "a little bald wrinkly smiling man" who

1872-459: Is octiron, a dense black metal that is a large part of the Discworld's crust. Its melting point is above the range of metal forges. The gates of Unseen University are made out of it, as is Old Tom, the university's bell. It is used to make magic needles and bells. It releases magical radiation, but if it becomes negatively polarised, it can be used to absorb such radiation. It generates significant amounts of heat under pressure, accounting for most of

1950-592: Is said to be much easier to discover than fire, and only slightly harder to discover than water. One of Rincewind's many accumulated positions is Reader in Slood Dynamics. The General Theory of Slood was discovered by Archchancellor Sloman, and a stained glass window representing this event is in the meeting room of the Unseen University college council. The University's plumbing system contains pipes for maintaining slood differential. The Disc itself

2028-521: Is the nature of belief on the Disc that temporary new gods come into being on a regular basis, and often for such mundane things as stuck drawers; Anoia, Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers, came into her powers in such a manner, though she was previously a volcano goddess. The Disc's nature is fundamentally teleological ; its basic composition is determined by what it is ultimately meant to be. This primary element, out of which all others spring,

2106-405: Is the principal force in the Discworld and operates in a similar vein to real-world elemental forces such as gravity and electromagnetism . The Disc's "standing magical field" is essentially the local breakdown of reality, which allows a flat planet on the back of a turtle to even exist. The force called "magic" is really just a function of the relative absence of reality in the local area, much in

2184-461: Is the thaum (from the Greek thauma , marvel), equal to the amount of mystical energy required to conjure up one small white pigeon , or three normal-sized billiard balls . Several SI -modifiers have been applied to it (e.g. millithaum, kilothaum) in the books. Magic can be measured with a thaumometer, which is described as a black cube with a dial on one side. A standard thaumometer is good for up to

2262-441: Is unable to do (e.g. fly). They are even more horrified when they find out that Igor has re-awakened the old Count Magpyr (having gone into his crypt and spilled a drop of blood on the old Count's cremated ashes), and that the people of Überwald would prefer the old Count to their new, modern type of vampirism. Oats gives the new Count a mortal wound across the neck with an axe (though for vampires, mortal wounds aren't necessarily

2340-519: Is unknown to the inhabitants of Discworld (though in The Colour of Magic Pratchett describes the turtle as male), but the subject of much speculation by some of the Disc's finest scientific minds. The sex of the World Turtle is pivotal in proving or disproving a number of conflicting theories about the destination of Great A'Tuin's journey through the cosmos . If, as the Discworld version of

2418-590: The post . Astolat is a legendary location in Arthurian mythology , and Sto lat is also a traditional Polish song equivalent to Happy Birthday to You ( sto lat literally means "hundred years"). Sto Helit is a duchy within Sto Lat, which was given to Mort in Mort , after he'd saved Queen Kelirehenna. After his death in Soul Music , his duchy apparently was passed to his daughter, Susan . She works as

Carpe Jugulum - Misplaced Pages Continue

2496-442: The red- and blue-shifting of light becomes noticeable when travelling at speeds of merely a one hundred and twenty miles per hour (190 km/h). Reality is spread thinly on the Disc, so events may be affected by expectations, especially those of 'intelligent' species such as humans, dwarves, etc. As such, the Discworld is not governed by real-world physics or logic but by belief and narrative resolution. Essentially, if something

2574-508: The Circle Sea are Ankh-Morpork , Ephebe , Djelibeybi , Klatch, Omnia and Tsort. The Circle Sea is the location of Leshp, an island that occasionally rises to the surface on a cushion of foul-smelling gas, before settling back to the seafloor once more. Leshp's last appearance sparked a near-war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch in Jingo . The unnamed continent is the one on which most of

2652-411: The Count and his family without her, but because the Magpyr family have built up a tolerance for the normal methods of defeating a vampire, such as garlic, bright light, and religious symbols, this is not so easily done. Just when it seems all is lost, Granny Weatherwax comes through the front door, soaked to the bone and swaying with exhaustion. Nanny Ogg and Magrat use Granny's assault upon the Count as

2730-486: The Count. Granny also surmises that there was a phoenix in the mews the entire times Hodgesaargh was out searching for one, having taken the shape of a hawk (having hatched amongst them). While Magrat and her daughter hide in Igor's dungeon quarters, Nanny and Igor begin fighting against the Magpyrs, using the considerable stock of Holy water and other religious symbols that were originally collected by old Count Magpyr (who

2808-462: The Disc use a compass with a needle of the magical metal octiron , which will always point towards Cori Celesti. Light is so oddly affected by magic that, as it passes into the Disc's atmosphere, it actually slows down from millions to hundreds of miles an hour. One odd effect of this is that the Disc has time zones , however, as a flat world, it should not. Another effect is that, as reported in Thud! ,

2886-421: The Disc, (e.g. the number of the colour of Magic, octarine) and should never be spoken by wizards, especially in certain places. Doing so may allow the ancient dungeon dimension creature "Bel-Shamharoth the sender of eight" to break through (this is taken to an extreme end in one book, as even the narrator takes great pains to avoid saying the word). On the other hand, eight turns up in many places one would expect

2964-531: The Disc. Very high quantities of magic can knock a hole in Discworld reality, leading to an invasion by Lovecraftian monstrosities from the Dungeon Dimensions, or, almost as bad, the world of the Elves . In the Discworld universe, magic is broken into elementary particulate fragments in much the same way that energy and other forces are in real-world quantum physics . The basic unit of Discworld magic

3042-503: The Discworld are not given as North, South, East and West, but rather as directions relating to the disc itself: Hubward (towards the centre), Rimward (away from the centre) and to a lesser extent, turnwise (direction of the disc's rotation) and widdershins (against the direction of the disc's rotation). The drawing on the front cover of Jingo shows a weathercock fitted with the requisite H , R , T and W letters. The disc rotates clockwise as seen from above. The Circle Sea

3120-402: The Discworld physics equivalent of the atom . "Splitting the thaum" revealed that it was in fact composed of numerous sub-particles, called resons ("thingies") which in turn are created from a combination of up to five "flavours": up, down, sideways, sex appeal, and peppermint (parodying the real-world quarks ). In the opening books, the number eight is significant and has magical properties on

3198-476: The Discworld's academics as the Discworld version of the steady state theory , which in-universe is known as the "steady gait" theory, is that Great A'Tuin came from nowhere and is going to keep swimming through space to nowhere forever. Eric shows Great A'Tuin being made instantly from nothing, seemingly in support of the "steady gait" theory; however, the events in The Light Fantastic , in which

Carpe Jugulum - Misplaced Pages Continue

3276-439: The Discworld, also referred to as the eighth colour . This fictional colour is strongly indicative of magic and can only be seen by wizards and cats, who both possess "octagon cells" in addition to the normal cones and rods possessed by humans. (See tetrachromacy for the real-world equivalent.). Rincewind, a wizard, describes it as resembling a fluorescent greenish-yellow purple. The Disc contains magical substances. One such

3354-685: The Duchess Annagovia of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment . It is possible for gods to derive power from misotheists , as demonstrated in Small Gods when Om takes a liking to the ardently anti-Omnianist Sergeant Simony. As demonstrated in Faust Eric and Mort , personal belief determines someone's fate in the afterlife, rather than divine judgement, whether it is going to paradise or Hell, or being reincarnated. Such

3432-572: The Great A'Tuin attended the hatching of eight baby turtles, each with four baby elephants and a tiny discworld of their own, would seem to support the Big Bang hypothesis. The little turtles have since gone off on their own journeys. Whether this was the event the Great A'Tuin was looking forward to or merely one step towards its ultimate goal is not mentioned. Great A'Tuin has been mentioned to frequently roll on its belly to avoid asteroid and comet collisions, or even to snatch these projectiles out of

3510-413: The Great A'Tuin's travelling through the universe, the night sky of the Discworld changes markedly over the course of decades, as the turtle departs older constellations and enters new ones. This means that astrologers must constantly update and alter their horoscopes to incorporate all-new zodiacs. A tiny sun and moon orbit the Great A'Tuin, both about 1 mile (1.6 km) in diameter when described at

3588-426: The Magpyrs as an "outdated" race) an uninhabited island in exchange for an alliance against the Magpyrs. Igor, the servant of the Magpyrs, is hated by the Magpyrs for his traditionalist "more gothic than thou" attitude, as Igor tries to keep the "tradithionalitht" ways alive often against the wishes of the modern current Count Magpyr, including forcing spiders to spin cobwebs. Igor has a pet dog named Scraps, made from

3666-443: The Magpyrs have established a means of feeding similar to tax-gathering, Agnes instigates a rebellion against the Vampires. Granny Weatherwax struggles against the vampirism inside her and thrusts the pain this causes into the iron of the castle forge's anvil. She is only able to defeat the vampirism after she looks inside herself and faces the darker side of her nature, but the struggle leaves her barely able to stand, let alone defeat

3744-563: The Marquis des Aix en Pains speaks Morporkian with a French accent. Quirm is famous for its floral clock : a circle of flowers, each of which opens its petals at a different hour. Quirm is also famous for its (blue-veined) cheese. Quirmian cuisine is generally characterised by avec (French for "with"). Quirm is a duchy ruled by the Rodley family. Members of this family include Lord Rodley, an upper-class twit in Mort , and Brenda Rodley,

3822-470: The Pseudopolis city militias; curiously (and this may be no more than a coincidence, although there may be a connection given Nobby's penchant for nicking and flogging [i.e., stealing and selling] anything not nailed down), Pseudopolis always lost its wars at this period because of an unaccountable shortage of weapons. John Keel, a city watchman, moved from Pseudopolis to Ankh-Morpork and was the mentor of

3900-508: The Rim, a great, encircling waterfall (the Rimfall) sends the Disc's oceans cascading into space. Pratchett is evasive about how the water eventually returns to refill the oceans, only saying, "Arrangements are made." The mist from the plunging waters creates the Rimbow, an eight-colour (the eighth is octarine ) double rainbow consisting both of light and of magic. Cardinal directions within

3978-399: The Sto Plains was Mort, and he did it by diplomacy rather than conquest. The principal city of the Sto Plains is Ankh-Morpork . While it does not exert any political power over its neighbors, its economic domination of the region (summed up by the phrase, "Attack us, and we'll call in your mortgages") has meant that the smaller cities around it are essentially its satellites. For some reason,

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4056-650: The United Kingdom, or even Greece (as a description in Unseen Academicals describes Quirm as having "strange water", which is the typical stereotype of the Greek water supply). The Quirmian language is occasionally described as similar to French or Spanish, but Snuff notes that all Quirmians speak perfect Morporkian. Spoken Quirmian in Making Money , is identical to French. In Raising Steam ,

4134-660: The assassin Mr. Teatime tries to kill the patron of Hogswatch by using an old magic that involves controlling a person with a part of their body (in this case, the teeth collected by the Tooth Fairies), in order to stop children from believing in him, and almost succeeds. It is also possible for humans to gain godly powers through the power of belief, typically venerated rulers such as the Kings of Djelibeybi as seen in Pyramids , and

4212-524: The basis of many forms of magical power in Discworld physics. Pratchett characters who use or change stories include Lilith, Black Aliss, and Granny Weatherwax. The habit of many Discworlders to take metaphor literally has combined with the power of belief to produce some very odd areas on the Discworld. The Place Where The Sun Does Not Shine, for instance, is a deep crevasse in Lancre, incidentally located between A Rock and A Hard Place. The colour of magic on

4290-399: The books are set. It is essentially the analogue of Europe, and contains among other things the Sto Plains and Ramtops, as well as the more Eastern European lands around Überwald. The Sto Plains are the rough analogue to Western Europe on the Discworld. They are a land of rich black loam, upon which rests a great squat forest of cabbages . In Soul Music , a footnote states various facts of

4368-422: The ceremony, has left her cottage empty and seems to be working towards a life in a cave , almost like a hermit . After they have left the hypnotic influence of the Vampires, Agnes, Nanny Ogg and Magrat attempt to convince her to help them save Lancre, but apparently without success, even after Granny is informed that her gilt-edged invitation was stolen by a magpie. The three witches return to Lancre to take on

4446-487: The city appear to have undertaken an experiment in representative democracy , much to Lord Vetinari 's amusement. While no Discworld novels have been set in Pseudopolis, a number of characters have roots there. Eric Thursley lives/lived at 13 Midden Lane ( Faust Eric ). Charlie, a man with an extraordinary physical resemblance to Ankh-Morpork Patrician Havelock Vetinari , ran a clothes shop there ( The Truth ). Nobby Nobbs had an early career as an armourer in one of

4524-507: The coat of arms has a hippo on each side. Pseudopolis (its name translates to "false city") is first mentioned in the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic . That novel also refers to Psephopololis, which according to The Discworld Mapp is the same place. The city is not to be confused with Pseudopolis Yard, the headquarters of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (a reference to Scotland Yard ). Pseudopolis possesses

4602-526: The end), and the old Count is left to teach the two young Magpyrs (Lacrimosa and Vlad) the "old ways." The three vampires are last seen turning into a flock of magpies and disappearing into the darkness of the castle roof. The novel ends with Nanny organising her relatives to attend a sermon by Oats, as he plans to travel to Überwald continue his missionary work; before he leaves, King Verence presents him with an axe-shaped pendent (replacing his Omnian turtle pendent which he lost earlier), and Agnes presents him with

4680-585: The idea of a disc-shaped world in the novel Strata (1981). Great A'Tuin is the Giant Star Turtle (of the fictional species Chelys galactica ) who travels through the Discworld universe's space , carrying four giant elephants (named Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon, and Jerakeen) who in turn carry the Discworld. The narration has described A'Tuin as "the only turtle ever to feature on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram ". Great A'Tuin's sex

4758-579: The inhabitants of a world where he forgot to include any. Since fingles do not exist on Earth, it is implied that Earth is the planet the Creator is referring to, and humanity is the species that is fundamentally incomplete because of their absence. Another is slood. First mentioned in The Last Continent , slood is a natural substance that could be discovered by intelligent beings, but that humans on Earth have been too unintelligent to find; it

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4836-680: The luminescent side is completely visible from the Disc; the new moon when the dark side is shown. The sun's orbit is so complex that one of the elephants has to cock its leg to allow the sun to continue on its orbit. According to the wizards of Unseen University , Chelys galactica , and thus Great A'Tuin, are composed largely of the fictional element chelonium, the properties of which are apparently known to them (they do tests to look for it in Roundworld [the Discworld analogue of Earth] in The Science of Discworld ), but not to readers. Magic

4914-407: The number seven in the real world (e.g. the Discworld week contains eight days, not seven). After The Colour of Magic , both the colour and the number eight no longer appear as dangerous. The Disc's magical field is centred on Cori Celesti. Everyday natural forces, such as light and magnetism , are muffled by the power of the Disc's magical field, and rather than a magnetised needle, navigators on

4992-583: The original Duke of Sto Helit, a thoroughly nasty man who staged a bid for the succession, thwarted only by Mort in Mort . At the end of Mort , Princess Keli became Queen. Politically, Sto Lat is the capital of a kingdom ruled by Queen Kelirehenna, which includes Sto Helit, Sto Kerrig, and the Eight Protectorates. Her authority is exercised through a Mayor. The kingdom was one of the first places outside Ankh-Morpork to adopt its own stampings for

5070-411: The parts of several dogs . Nanny Ogg, Magrat, and Magrat's infant daughter, Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre , escape with the help of the rebelling Igor (who appears to have a crush on Nanny), but are forced to detour to Überwald and end up in the Magpyrs' castle. Agnes is kidnapped by the Magpyrs' son and their clan, who give chase by flying. After being taken to the village of Escrow where

5148-485: The party after the ceremony, Verence tells Nanny Ogg and Agnes Nitt that the Count has informed him that the Magpyr family intend to move into Lancre Castle and take over. Due to a type of hypnotism , everyone seems to consider this plan to be perfectly acceptable. Only the youngest witch, Agnes, and Mightily Oats seem able to resist the vampiric mind control, due to their being " in two minds about everything " (resulting from her Perdita persona, and his contemplation of

5226-546: The popular " Big Bang theory " states, Great A'Tuin is moving from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating, then at the point of mating the civilisations of the Disc might be crushed, simply slide off, or else the entire world will end. The hypothesis is that all stars in the sky are also worlds carried by giant turtles, and that when all the turtles meet they will mate passionately, for the first and only time; from that mating, it

5304-475: The region: The cabbage has an almost mythic status among the people of the Sto Plains, and is an emblem of its largest and dominant city, Ankh-Morpork , which is located near the northeast of the coat of arms. Many young people who leave the farming areas of the Plains for life in the big city would happily never see a cabbage again. Although they have been an empire in the past, the Sto Plains currently exist as

5382-443: The same energy expenditure. This is why most Discworld wizards store magic in a staff, which is a sort of capacitor for magical energy. On the Discworld, where magic has more in common with particle physics than Houdini , high-level background magic (most likely a reference to real-world background radiation ) occurs when a very powerful spell hits, creating myriad sub-astral particles that severely distort local reality. Building

5460-440: The same way that the absence of heat is described as "coldness". Magic warps reality in much the same way as the real universe's gravity warps its space-time. The act of performing magic is, essentially, telling the universe what form it must take, in terms that the universe cannot ignore. This is very draining to magic users, due to Discworld science's Law of Conservation of Reality, which states that magic and mundane methods require

5538-419: The sky which might otherwise destroy the Disc. These stunts do not affect the Disc's population, other than to induce severe seasickness on anyone who happens to be looking at the night sky at that time. A'Tuin has been known to do more complex rolls and corkscrews, but these are rarer. This is similar to real-world sea turtles' habit of rolling over with their shell down to protect themselves from sharks. Due to

5616-404: The start of the series, but the description of their diameter is increased to at least 80 miles (130 km) later in the chronicles. The moon is slightly closer to the Disc than the sun. One half is covered with silvery glowing plants, which feed the lunar dragons. The other half is burnt black by the sun. The moon rotates and completes a full revolution in about a month; the full moon occurs when

5694-469: The sun), and Scandinavia – the Hublanders share many features with Vikings . Polar bears are renamed "Hubland bears", while the Disc's equivalent of the aurora borealis (described as being produced by the Disc's magical field, rather than by magnetism) is known as the "Aurora Coriolis". The areas closer to the Rim are warmer and tropical, since the Disc's sun passes closer to them in its orbit. At

5772-404: The teaching profession themselves, or become governesses . Sto Lat, ruled by Queen Kelirehenna , is located about 20 miles (32 km) from Ankh-Morpork. According to the books, Sto Lat is a sizable walled town in the Sto Plains, although eclipsed enormously both in size and influence by the neighbouring city of Ankh-Morpork . Sto Lat is the nearest major city to Ankh-Morpork (approximately

5850-433: The tenets of the myriad schismatic sects of Omnianism). Because of her ability to resist his influence, the Magpyr son, Vlad, is attracted to Agnes and makes many advances on her including trying to convince her to become a vampire. Meanwhile, the castle falconer Hodgesaargh goes out searching for a phoenix after discovering a phoenix feather. Meanwhile, Granny Weatherwax , feeling slighted by not receiving an invitation to

5928-439: The time with learning things." The school resembles a traditional English independent girls' school, with an academic curriculum and heavy emphasis on respectable and decent behaviour. Students at the school do not seem to be preparing for any particular profession. Susan Sto Helit describes it as "an education in, well, education" ( Hogfather ). It appears that those students who do not marry upon leaving school generally go into

6006-478: The volcanic geological processes on Discworld. When struck (such as with Old Tom), instead of producing a sound it briefly silences anything around it. Another is fingles, insinuated in Eric to be an important part of human psychology. Their absence, according to the Creator, can cause psychological problems. "On the surface they were all right, but deep down they knew something was missing", as he put it, referring to

6084-523: The young Sam Vimes ( Night Watch ). Quirm is the location of the Quirm College for Young Ladies (formerly attended by Susan Sto Helit ) and the birthplace of Leonard of Quirm (the Disc's Leonardo da Vinci ). It is a quiet and peaceful town, and for this reason is a popular holiday destination. It is also where Morporkians go when they retire (including Lord Vetinari 's aunt, Lady Roberta Meserole). In this regard, it relates to Ankh-Morpork as Eastbourne relates to London, or possibly as Spain relates to

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